Ongoing Journey to being a Frugalista..

Suffolk_lass

Our heating is off and probably staying that way until my Mum comes down for Christmas (on 19th) - we also have a wood-burner and plenty of bags of foraged now-seasoned wood. And an extra jumper here and there!

brizzlegirl

Have to keep up appearances and all that so heating will be on for a few hours this evening when we have friends round for dinner. Otherwise am with you SL!!

Yesterday evening so chilly we just wrapped up and went to sleep early!! Funny but good for my health as need all the sleep I can get!

OH a bit down at the lack of money to allocate and the liabilities still flowing in.. the joys of getting a grip and making choices and substitutions Not sure it had completely dawned on him before... but it’s great to have him so formly focussed on the road to DFdom

Have a good day all

Brizzle x

Seasidegal58

It's such a help I think if you and your your OH are on the same financial page. Kudos to him for finally getting there!:)

brizzlegirl

Thanks SSG. Yes he is there - big time. Pretty aghast at how hard it is to balance the books and only allocate what you have - not even the next month’s pay packet - which is a hard step I know. I still can’t quite get my head around it.

Heading into a short break. Hope everyone is good

Brizzle x

brizzlegirl

Hello All

So a month of extreme scrimpiness draws to a close. Quite an effort but OH is taking on the lions share of the worrying and juggling now. Not very healthy, more than a touch of OCD about the repeated checking and juggling and moving of money, but it makes us both feel in control and after we sell the car we should just be worrying about the credit cards and getting straight before the summer.

Heating has only just gone on, which is a result. We may even switch it off again when we don’t have guests. I love yoga in a heated space, With our monthly membership we can always go there to warm up :rotfl: We are also using lots of leftover wood so that feels environmentally friendly. Our stove does need a service though as although double walled I do like to know it isn’t overly contributing to our smoky city!

Cutting down on groceries will help. We spent £545 last month which is a lot for 3, but includes alcohol including entertaining , big meat box (1/4 pig) fish chicken and veggie boxes every week, we are trying to go more veggie and even vegan at times which should help. We have already decided to go for fish this Christmas for dinner and DD1 will be vegan. My aim is for £400 for November.

Feeling positive about life, a break (with DD1 too back for a bit from uni ) has done us all the world of good and my getting more sleep has seen off the cold I was brewing around middle of last week so that’s all good.

Anyway best get a move on and shake a tail feather....haven’t got up yet!!!!!

Lots of love to all

Brizzle xx

beanielou

All sounds good. Xx

enthusiasticsaver

All sounding very positive Brizzle.

As a FIRE enthusiast myself (we retired at 57/58) you are definitely doing the right thing in monitoring your budgets and spends carefully. Getting outgoings low is a key component. You are more percentage focused than us though. We still budget even though retired but use clear checkbook rather than ynab. Same principle though I think in that every pound is allocated somewhere.

I look forward to reading that the debt is gone hopefully next Spring as that will have a massive impact on your budget. We also put 2 girls through uni so understand that is expensive albeit mine went through before fees went up as high as they are now. Taking the student loan is worth it though I think.

Sun_Addict

I wish I was hardy enough not to put my heating on - mine's on if the temperature drops below 21 degrees. With Mr SA being so immobile he feels the cold even more than I do. Living in a fairly big old house doesn't help.


You're doing really well with the finances and sound very much in control. Just think how fab it will be when you're straight in the summer

brizzlegirl

Aah thanks for dropping by, all, its very much appreciated

You're right SA, my sister has a condition which makes her feel the cold too - harder to regulate her core temperature so there is no point in being miserable. But we are lucky enough to be able to manage and so manage we should...it should help. Re our electric bill while lower than many people's and very stable we were thinking that maybe the solar panels aren't as productive as they were.. I am musing on whether we should try and clean them next year but it'd probably need scaffolding. maybe will ask on the forums what other people think. But anyway on a sunny day it all trickles in..

I think the student loan may be a good thing next year but also worry about the 6% it is running at and how she would ever pay it off and do the usual things like save a deposit etc. I believe it also gets taken into consideration when assessing how much you can borrow. Will keep under review and who knows what promises will get made in the run up to a GE!!

EBay sales went well - over £100 bagged so need to update the signature and also OH got a further £25 from selling some FL stuff. Nice additional income...

Its harder than usual to see what we spent last month as we moved to a new version of YNAB on the 12th October but basically I know it was considerably less than we earnt. Well no celebration there (as it were) as it has to be :think: (eye roll emoji needed!) We need to spend less so we can get rid of debts but also start to save and invest more. The percentage idea is a good philosophy for us ES, as it helps me think that as we have a good income between us, we should be setting our lifestyle at about that 60/40 baseline. According to the new YNAB we started on 3 days worth of money in hand (which was down right scary) and now are up to 19. Not yet a pay cheque away from destitution but getting much better over the last 2-3 weeks as we have screwed everything down tight.

As I said a little while ago, there is a scary symmetry in some of this - cutting back on consumption is the right thing to do for our planet as well as our peace of mind and our future selves..

Have a lovely Sunday eve all

Brizzle xx

pennywisepoundstupid

All sounding good and well done on the ebay sales. xx